1.2.11-Kingedmundsroyalmurder
Brick!club chapters 11 and 12 So there appears to be surprise wifi here, which is cool. I am also seriously lacking in energy, which is less cool, so these are going to be super short. Also I’m finding myself with little say concerning the Actual Plot of this book, which is somewhat worrying. Maybe that means I’ll gain momentum again when we reach the next digression? (Not gonna lie, I may be the only person actively looking forward to Waterloo. Plot stresses me out, sorry.) Anyway, chapters. So in chapter eleven Valjean actually goes ahead and steals the silver like we knew he was going to the second it was introduced. And the Bishop is literally shining with the light of his oneness with God (I assume there’s a metaphor there for God being the light and His servants being able only to reflect His light rather than somehow creating their own but I don’t feel like poking at it more than that and I tend to overanalyze anyway.) More talk of light and shadows and there I am not overanalyzing. Hugo’s laying it on extremely thick. Others have mentioned that this is the first time we’ve really seen Jean Valjean demonstrate agency in what is ostensibly his own story. Is it him being out of the influence of Toulon and the strict guards or is it Hugo remembering that protagonists should actually act rather than react to things. (Sorry, I get snarky when I’m tired. Snarkier than usual, I mean.) So yeah. Valjean stares at the Bishop for a while then goes ahead and takes the silver and escapes through the garden. I do wonder why Mme. Magloire bothers to lock the cabinet at all if she’s just going to leave the key in the lock (or maybe next to it; I’m not entirely clear as to the placement of the key). And why does the Bishop let her lock that but not anything else? A continuation on the earlier mention that the silver was the one thing he couldn’t let go of from his other life, one which presumably also included door locking? Anyway. Valjean escapes into the night and we fastforward to sunrise and the next chapter. Mme. Magloire discovers the theft, the Bishop is snarky at her (“do you know where the basket of silver is?” she asks. “I do indeed,” he replies and holds up the empty basket. “It’s right here.” “That’s not what I meant and you know it,” she says or she would in my brain. Instead she just clarifies her question. And yes, I am too lazy/tired to translate so just have the paraphrases.) So the police bring in Valjean, who is apparently still not very good at this whole petty criminal thing. I assume his not thinking this through very well is part of his convoluted thinking in general, but still. You’d think he’d have thought about what would happen if he was searched by the police, which is no doubt super likely given his convict status. He’s damn lucky that the Bishop upholds his story (and that he picked one the Bishop would confirm). Is it just me or is the whole, “I have bought your soul for God” thing kind of manipulative of the Bishop? He does this kind of thing all the time and it never fails to make me wonder. Like, first off, aren’t redemption and contrition and conversion and all that personal matters? I’m not sure you can just be like, “you’re a good person now, deal with it” and have it work. And it is stripping Valjean of his agency again. Yes, the Bishop wants him to change for the better (which is now making me think of Wicked… I’ve heard it said/people come into our lives/for a reason) but he’s still not really giving Valjean any say in this. What if Valjean doesn’t want to be reformed? The Bishop is putting words into his mouth and making promises for him and it just doesn’t quite sit right with me. The Bishop is weirdly manipulative for someone so otherwise saint-like. Commentary Pilferingapples I think the Bishop is absolutely manipulating Valjean here- but then again Valjean doesn’t really seem to be in any state to make his own choices. To use an extreme personal analogy, when I’m in the first stages of a seizure, I sometimes lose my ability to process any directional stimuli, like “up or down”— someone who sits me down before I fall over is being very helpful, if they’re acting with that knowledge. Otherwise, they’re being incredibly invasive and just lucking out on timing. So I guess the question is, does the Bishop have a high enough Omniscient Morality License to make that call here? We’re clearly supposed to believe he does, and his success with criminals through this part of the book has me convinced that he DOES know what he’s doing— and even if I wasn’t convinced, I’d be willing to let it go, since either Valjean will take this message to heart, reform, and save himself from wasting the rest of his life in hate— or Valjean will keep stealing and get caught in the NEXT town, because at this point in his life he is clearly THE LEAST COMPETENT CRIMINAL IN FRANCE. Where was he even going to sell that silver?!? OKAY, put off the pain of true reformation long enough. Onward!